Fold those mirrors in at the auto wash folks. Some interesting things I’ve learned:

[invertedspear]

Obviously, fold the mirrors in at the auto wash. I’ve been through this tunnel at least 2 dozen times without issue. Sometimes it would fold my mirrors one way or another, but until now, they always just folded back. This time, there was a distinctly loud pop and my passenger side mirror was now all floppy on the folding and pretty much useless as a mirror. I thought maybe something just popped out of place, and I tried to reseat it, but no luck. It’s toast. I pulled it off when I got home, and started pulling it apart to see if I could fix it, but yeah, it cracked in multiple places. $1500 on ford parts?! $500 on ebay for one that I hope is close enough. To prevent any water/weather intrusion I put the trim piece back on. So here’s the interesting things. FWIW I have the XLT but with the upgrade to the 360 cameras.

• No cross traffic alerts. This was surprising, as I thought those sensors were in the tail lights and rear camera.
• No blind spot detection, makes sense kind of, again I thought that was in the tail light, but there would be no way to indicate to me if the mirror is gone. Surprised me it won’t even try on the driver side.
  • Aggravating part of this is that any time a pop up happens on the gauge cluster, even a seatbelt unbuckling, I get reminded that BLISS isn’t working. But other than that, it’s not a constant alarm or anything.
• Backup camera works, but on the 360 view, there’s a big blue zone. No surprise there.
• Cameras when driving do not work, even the bed camera. They work for a moment then just kind of freak out and go back to the home screen or carplay.
• LKA and ACC work just fine. I thought the lack of cross traffic and blind spot might make this a problem, but I guess those aren’t tied together at all. No Bluecruise, so couldn’t test that.
• These mirrors kind of justify the price tag, when you factor in the normal price gouging one expects from Ford parts.
  • There’s more wiring in them than my first desktop computer. And it’s wired after the base structure is assembled as the connectors can’t fit through the channels built into the structure.
  • The camera uses a mini COAX connection that is separate from the rest of the wiring harness, but taped together.
  • There’s about a whole role of electrical tape as wires join and split from the wiring bundle to various things.
  • BLISS components, defroster, power aiming, blinker light, flood/puddle/zone light, camera,.
• Biggest surprise last, I have no external temperature display on the gauge or infotainment. Looks like the thermometer is built into the passenger side mirror. It looks like a little nipple under the arm. Want to lightly vandalize someone’s truck in a near undetectable way? Grab that with a pair of pliers and yank. They’ll lose their temp display and not know why. I had no idea the thermometer was built into the mirror till now.

Anyway, if anyone wants some pic of the internals, let me know. For now I’m awaiting my ebay mirror off a Raptor, looks like it matches up correctly, camera and all. I’m hoping to just get away with swapping in my old color matched cap. In the mean time, I’m adjust to driving without a mirror and all those nice safety aids built in to it. I’ll post back when I get the new one and swap it in.

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[21st Century Truck]

Obviously, fold the mirrors in at the auto wash. I’ve been through this tunnel at least 2 dozen times without issue. Sometimes it would fold my mirrors one way or another, but until now, they always just folded back. This time, there was a distinctly loud pop and my passenger side mirror was now all floppy on the folding and pretty much useless as a mirror. I thought maybe something just popped out of place, and I tried to reseat it, but no luck. It’s toast. I pulled it off when I got home, and started pulling it apart to see if I could fix it, but yeah, it cracked in multiple places. $1500 on ford parts?! $500 on ebay for one that I hope is close enough. To prevent any water/weather intrusion I put the trim piece back on. So here’s the interesting things. FWIW I have the XLT but with the upgrade to the 360 cameras.

• No cross traffic alerts. This was surprising, as I thought those sensors were in the tail lights and rear camera.
• No blind spot detection, makes sense kind of, again I thought that was in the tail light, but there would be no way to indicate to me if the mirror is gone. Surprised me it won’t even try on the driver side.
  • Aggravating part of this is that any time a pop up happens on the gauge cluster, even a seatbelt unbuckling, I get reminded that BLISS isn’t working. But other than that, it’s not a constant alarm or anything.
• Backup camera works, but on the 360 view, there’s a big blue zone. No surprise there.
• Cameras when driving do not work, even the bed camera. They work for a moment then just kind of freak out and go back to the home screen or carplay.
• LKA and ACC work just fine. I thought the lack of cross traffic and blind spot might make this a problem, but I guess those aren’t tied together at all. No Bluecruise, so couldn’t test that.
• These mirrors kind of justify the price tag, when you factor in the normal price gouging one expects from Ford parts.
  • There’s more wiring in them than my first desktop computer. And it’s wired after the base structure is assembled as the connectors can’t fit through the channels built into the structure.
  • The camera uses a mini COAX connection that is separate from the rest of the wiring harness, but taped together.
  • There’s about a whole role of electrical tape as wires join and split from the wiring bundle to various things.
  • BLISS components, defroster, power aiming, blinker light, flood/puddle/zone light, camera,.
• Biggest surprise last, I have no external temperature display on the gauge or infotainment. Looks like the thermometer is built into the passenger side mirror. It looks like a little nipple under the arm. Want to lightly vandalize someone’s truck in a near undetectable way? Grab that with a pair of pliers and yank. They’ll lose their temp display and not know why. I had no idea the thermometer was built into the mirror till now.

Anyway, if anyone wants some pic of the internals, let me know. For now I’m awaiting my ebay mirror off a Raptor, looks like it matches up correctly, camera and all. I’m hoping to just get away with swapping in my old color matched cap. In the mean time, I’m adjust to driving without a mirror and all those nice safety aids built in to it. I’ll post back when I get the new one and swap it in.

Sorry this happened... FYI the color cap swaps right over with three Torx screws.

I also have an XLT and am saving pennies to upgrade to the autofold mirrors.

 

[Altivec]

Want to lightly vandalize someone’s truck in a near undetectable way?

Pretty sucky that happened. I am just sticking to hand washing... I've heard too many horror stories about automatic car washes.

But your comment about "lightly" vandalizing caught me off guard. After telling us how expensive the mirrors are, I am not so sure I would call it "lightly". I am sure a friend with a Lightning would laugh for days after he found out you yanked the sensor out with a pair of pliers. I don't even get it. Why not just key or take a sledge hammer to the passenger side. Most drivers don't even go on that side so they won't notice until way later.... Oh so funny...not! Sorry. I've had cars get vandalized for no reason so I get triggered when someone thinks that vandalizing someones else's truck is even remotely funny never mind promoting the idea.

 

[detansinn]

I enabled the setting to have them auto fold whenever I lock the truck. Gives me a nice indicator that the truck is indeed locked and keeps them out of harms way.

Sorry to hear about your experience.

 

[Randall Stephens]

wait, what happened?

 

[jeff_h]

Obviously, fold the mirrors in at the auto wash. I’ve been through this tunnel at least 2 dozen times without issue.

I've been through my tunnel wash (unlimited subscription so I go ~2-3x/week) and probably been through about 50x, never had any issue.

My mirrors never get pushed in by the brushes as they pass, so maybe the brush settings are pretty lax. However with your experience maybe I should learn from that and fold in my drivers side and ask the attendant (there's always one at the check-in kiosk) to walk over and push in the passenger side.

On your past runs through the wash, did the brushes normally push the mirror(s) in or not?

 

[Mike G]

I used to leave them unfolded until one day the car wash nearest to where I live took the charge door cover panel completely off and broke the pin. The door cover went right back on, but I had to find that pin, and you can't order it for a Lightning...you have to order the entire charge port assembly. So instead you tell them you want a charge port door pin for a Mach-E, and it's the same thing, but can be ordered by itself.

I now fold them on both the car and the truck when I go through. It's the outside of the caps that I need cleaned anyway from the bug hits. The glass is normally not really that dirty.

 

[Mach Turtle]

Another XLT manual fold driver, a basic XLT but with the 360 cam, which I consider a vital safety feature. I'd be interested to see photos of what's inside the damaged mirror, but only if it's not a lot of trouble. Sorry that you've had this trouble to begin with, and hope you can get the thing fixed without too much hassle.

 

[Lightning Rod]

Sorry to hear this. I ran my 2007 F-150 XLT thru a tunnel wash a couple times a week for 15 years without much issues.

I only hand wash my Lightning. I have a good ceramic coating on the whole exterior and I'm pretty anal about upkeep and maintaining the coating on the finish. I've heard some horror stories with our Lightnings and auto car washes.

I wish you luck on replacing your mirror.

 

[invertedspear]

Pretty sucky that happened. I am just sticking to hand washing... I've heard too many horror stories about automatic car washes.

But your comment about "lightly" vandalizing caught me off guard. After telling us how expensive the mirrors are, I am not so sure I would call it "lightly". I am sure a friend with a Lightning would laugh for days after he found out you yanked the sensor out with a pair of pliers. I don't even get it. Why not just key or take a sledge hammer to the passenger side. Most drivers don't even go on that side so they won't notice until way later.... Oh so funny...not! Sorry. I've had cars get vandalized for no reason so I get triggered when someone thinks that vandalizing someones else's truck is even remotely funny never mind promoting the idea.

Sorry my friend, it was my way of calling attention to how impossible it would be to notice if something like that happened. Poor humor on my part.

I enabled the setting to have them auto fold whenever I lock the truck. Gives me a nice indicator that the truck is indeed locked and keeps them out of harms way.

Sorry to hear about your experience.

No option for power folding on the XLT.

wait, what happened?

I thought I described it but I didn’t give a lot of detail. Spinning brushes in the wash tunnel would always shove my mirrors back and forth. This time it was more than the cylinder could handle. Made a loud pop when the brushes hit it this time and now it wouldn’t click into place anymore, so wouldn’t stay in the "deployed" position.

On your past runs through the wash, did the brushes normally push the mirror(s) in or not?

yeah, it was pretty normal to have both mirrors get folded all the way forward and then back to the normal position two or three times each pass through the tunnel.

 

[invertedspear]

Another XLT manual fold driver, a basic XLT but with the 360 cam, which I consider a vital safety feature. I'd be interested to see photos of what's inside the damaged mirror, but only if it's not a lot of trouble. Sorry that you've had this trouble to begin with, and hope you can get the thing fixed without too much hassle.

the part with the arm that attaches to the door is back on the truck to keep water and weather out. The round thing is the power adjustment mechanism. The big black thing is the internal structure the smaller black thing with the wires running through it is the part that actually broke. Across the bottom is the blinker a trim piece and the thermometer. The outer ring trim is in the shadow at the top. Not pictured is the light and camera component, and the cap.

 

[Altivec]

Sorry my friend, it was my way of calling attention to how impossible it would be to notice if something like that happened. Poor humor on my part.

Not a problem... I overreacted... Just had flooding memories of someone keying my previous truck and replied too soon. Should have drank some coffee before I posted. All good...

 

[MountainAlive]

With all these sensor failures etc how does someone swap to tow mirrors on this truck?

 

[TaxmanHog]

With all these sensor failures etc how does someone swap to tow mirrors on this truck?

There are equivalent FoMoCO tow mirrors available $$$$ in the F series line with all sensors and cameras. (not directly optionable on Lightning ..... WHY I don't know!?!

 

[The Weatherman]

Touch-Less or Hand Wash only. A motto to live by.

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